No matter your stance on the war, please pray for our troops and their families!

You Will Love This!

I have posted before to share the wonder of "Southern Snow"... the cotton harvest, but this is the second "Southern Snow"... flower petals in the spring. So lovely!

Last night there was high wind all night and pretty strong through the day too. We woke to millions of beautiful white Bradford Pear blossoms showering the yard like snow in a dream! Individual petals falling like snow all day long. Wow! Spectacular! They were even all over the cars in the front yard - over our two story house!

This weekend I received a sales flyer from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's a great store. They showed something that I've never seen before, a dish rack to fit modern sinks. It's $16.99. This is their image.

I was excited there was something made to fit modern sinks available now, but instantly saw that it isn't nearly as useful as mine. When we did The Accidental Remodel last year, I was still using a plastic dish rack from Walmart that I paid about $6 for 17 years ago and is it's still like new! It sits securely on top of the granite and fully fills every inch of the large side of my sinks, leaving a perfect section open to securely stand all my cookie sheets, cutting boards, cooling racks, spatter guards, you name it. I wash in the small side, which is still enormous, as it uses less water to fill. In fact, I rinse in it too and still almost never have a full bowl when I'm done with the dishes.

They advertise, "This durable, expandable drainer can be used in the sink, over the sink
or on your counter. Holds up to eight plates and includes a utensil
holder."

First, I'd like to point out that the only "expandable" part is the handles that are already wasting drying space and expanding them doesn't gain you a molecule of drying space.

Second, mine can be used over the sink and on the counter too.

Next, let's look at the utensil holder. Mine is more than twice as large and holds tons more than theirs. Additionally, their utensil holder takes space away from the main body of the rack and mine is added on to the outside. This means that not only does it let you use all the space in the main body of the rack for dishes, but it provides a third long side of support to sit it securely on top your counter. That's very important when you fill a rack with heavy dishes.

Note - when we got the counter and sink and I discovered the old rack fit peeeerrrrrfectly, I was a bit concerned about the weight of the dishes warping it as it is plastic and doesn't touch the bottom of the sink for support. Well, almost a year later I can tell you there has been no change at all. I have, however, made a policy of never leaving heavy things in it long, just to be responsible. Before the remodel, I often air dried the dishes. Now, if there are just a few, I just set them on the chrome drain rack we got with the sink. If there are more, I use this plastic rack and towel dry them when I'm done washing, then just tuck it under the sink so all we see is those gorgeous shiny new sinks and counter. A serendipity blessing has been that there is rarely more than a couple dishes on the counter and the room looks splendid! No more air drying on the counters. Sometimes I air dry on the chrome rack inside the sink where they don't show, but mostly I use the plastic rack and it even matches my woodwork! And no, we do not have a dish washer.

Now lets compare the amount of dishes that fit in theirs and in mine. They advertise 8 plates. Wow. Really? Mine has 14 slots and a large area in the center that you can just continue standing plates in. I have almost never had more dishes than I can pile up in that rack this year. It holds a ton!

Lastly I'd like to address the one side of the rack that doesn't sit firmly on the counter. It took me about one heartbeat to realize it was a dream come true! It is absolutely perfect to securely stand all all my cookie sheets, cutting boards, cooling racks, spatter guards, you name it. It is fantastic! No more problems with them not fitting in a rack or sliding off a stack of dishes drying on a towel on the counter. Wonderful!!!!

Just for the record, I'm not being compensated by anyone to say these things. I just think we all need to stick together and help each other when we can. Just being neighborly! Have a great day and come back to see me!